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Ling Yen Mountain Temple: Vegetarian Recipes

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Ling Yen Mountain Temple is located on “Highway to Heaven“. The road is named after the 60 temples, mosques, churches and chapels that stand side by side on No. 5 Road.

They opened in 1999 and the temple has a traditional  Chinese quadrangular building. The temple is in the Pure Land  tradition of Ling Yen Shan near  Suzhou, Jiangsu, China. It is an offshoot of Ling Yen Shan monastery near Puli, Nantou, Taiwan, which was founded by Master Miao Lien in 1984.

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The temple has regular celebrations of events during different seasons. During the celebration of Buddha’s birthday and Chinese New Year, the building is surrounded with 1000 special lanterns. Paramita Ball prayers are also set out on occasion.

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They are open for tours and for guest to come and seek wisdom. There are over 10,000 members in Greater Vancouver as well as a few resident monastics that live here.

We weren’t able to take photos of the inside where the big Buddha statues are, but they are quite nice.

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They have a garden where they grow things, but since it was the winter, nothing much grew when we were here.

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Everyday, they offer free vegetarian lunches to their guests.

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Here are a few recipes from their Vegetarian Cook Book – Pure Taste Pure Mind. The recipes were compiled by their volunteers. You can grab a copy of their book from the temple for free.

[tabs tab1=”Crispy Tofu Balls” tab2=”Braised Spongy Gluten” tab3=”Pineapple Shortcake”]

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crispy-tofu-balls

Ingredients:

  • 1 piece of firm tofu
  • 3 sheets of nori
  • a few sprigs of Thai basil
  • 100g button mushrooms
  • vegetarian ham
  • potato starch
  • pinch of salt
  • pinch of pepper
  • dash of oil

Instructions:

  1. Wash the tofu. Drain and mash into a paste. Cut the nori into small pieces. Wash and mince the Thai basil and button mushrooms. Mince the vegetarian ham.
  2. Add salt and pepper, and thoroughly mix all ingredients. Make 2cm wide balls with the pasta
  3. Lightly and evenly cover the balls with potato starch. Let them sit for a few seconds and then deep-fry until golden brown.

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[tab id=2]

braised-spongy-gluten

Ingredients:

  • 1 pack of baked spongy gluten
  • 5 dried shiitake mushrooms
  • 4pcs bamboo shoots
  • several dried daylily flowers (soak until tender and cleaned)
  • several pieces of black wood ear mushrooms (soak until tender and cleaned)
  • peanuts
  • 13-15 tsp of oil
  • 10 tsp of soy sauce
  • 6.5 tsp of sugar
  • cornstarch
  • slices of ginger
  • sesame oil

Instructions:

  1. Julienne and stir-fry bamboo shoots in a preheated skillet with oil. Add a splash of water and cook for 2 minutes. Add 1 tsp of soy sauce and 1/2 tsp of sugar. Stir well. Remove from heat and set aside.
  2. Blanch spongy gluten. Remove from water and squeeze dry. Shred into small pieces. In a preheated skilled with 5 tsp of oil, add 5 -6 pieces of ginger and cook until aromatized. Add spongy gluten and cook until golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
  3. Soak shiitake mushrooms in water until soft. Wash and cut into small pieces. Add 1 tsp of soy sauce and a bit of cornstarch; mix well. In a skillet, heat 2 tsp of oil. Pour in the shiitake mushrooms and stir-fry for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
  4. In a skillet, heat 3 tsp of water, 6-7 tsp of oil, 8 tsp of soy sauce, 6 tsp of sugar and a pinch of grated ginger. Add daylilies and wood ear mushrooms. Cook for 8 minutes until tender. Stir in spongy gluten and shiitake mushrooms. Add bamboo shoots and mix. Reduce heat and simmer until the sauce thickens. Drizzle some sesame oil and serve. Add peanuts as garnish if desired.

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[tab id=3]

pineapple-shotcake

Ingredients:

  • 55g unsalted butter
  • 45g vegetable shortening
  • 35g icing sugar
  • 15g evaporated milk
  • 150g all purpose flour
  • 15g skim milk powder
  • 500g pineapple jam

Instructions:

  1. Cream butter and vegetable shortening together. Mix in the icing sugar. Add evaporated milk into the mixture and beat together.
  2. Sift in skim milk powder and flour. Mix well.
  3. Fill out the dough and cut into pieces. Put some pineapple jin in the center of the dough pieces and press them into a mold. Take them out and line them on a baking sheet. Bake for 9 minutes in an oven preheated at 350F. Flip the shortcakes and bake for another 6 minutes.

Cooking tips:

A typical square mould for pineapple shortcake calls for 25g of dough and 25g of filling. If you use a smaller, flatter mold, use about 15g of dough and 15g of filling. For flower-shaped molds, experiment with the amount of dough and filling needed. Most standard pineapple shortcakes have a dough-to-filling ratio of 1:1.

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Diana started Foodology in 2010 because she just eats out everyday! She started a food blog to share her love of food with the world! She lives in Vancouver, BC and adores the diversity of food around her. She will go crazy for churros and lattes.

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